Chapter 5

I landed in Mexico just as dusk was falling.

My local guide, Marcus, was a lean, dark-skinned man.

"Amelia, the Carolina Reaper is no joke. Local farmers here use it as a pesticide. They spray it on crops to keep pests away. Are you really going to eat this live?"

"Yes, really."

He looked at me like I was walking to my execution.

We drove for over three hours into the mountains.

The streaming setup was simple—a rustic wooden table inside a metal-roofed shed, with several sealed plastic containers laid out.

Marcus put on heavy-duty gloves and opened one of the boxes.

An invisible wave of pure, pungent heat hit my face.

Tears instantly welled in my eyes.

But my tongue didn't taste spicy. It still tasted bitter.

Chloe was still streaming.

Marcus scrambled back two steps. "Just smelling it is brutal. Are you absolutely sure..."

"Set up the phone. We go live in ten minutes."

He hesitated but did as he was told.

The moment the stream started, viewers began trickling in out of curiosity.

It was a brand-new account with zero followers, so no one knew who I was.

The title was simple: *"Eating Raw Carolina Reapers Live."*

I put on gloves, reached into the container, and pulled out a small, wrinkled, deep-red pepper.

It was tiny, barely the size of my thumb.

Marcus was frantically shaking his head behind the camera.

I took a bite.

For the first three seconds, I felt nothing.

On the fourth second, the gates of hell swung wide open.

It wasn't just spicy.

It was fire.

It felt like someone had pressed a red-hot iron plate directly onto my tongue, searing its way down my throat, through my esophagus, and straight into my stomach.

My entire body doubled over. Tears and sweat poured down my face instantly.

But on my tongue...

The bitterness was gone.

The bitter taste from Chloe was being rapidly, violently obliterated by the sheer heat.

The system swapped our senses.

If I tasted heat, she would taste it too.

And this was the most extreme heat on the planet.

The chat exploded.

*"Holy crap, is she actually eating it?"*

*"A Carolina Reaper?? Is she trying to die??"*

*"She’s crying but she’s still chewing. This girl is insane."*

I forced myself to swallow the first pepper.

My stomach felt like a grenade had detonated inside it.

But the bitter taste that had tortured me for days was entirely gone.

Replaced by a pure, all-consuming burn.

It felt amazing.

My phone began vibrating frantically.

It wasn't notifications from my stream. It was Snapchat calls from Chloe.

One after another, missed calls piling up.

I picked up a second pepper and smiled at the camera.

"Alright guys, round two."

The moment I bit down, my phone finally connected.

I hadn't picked it up—Marcus’s hand had slipped and swiped the screen while trying to mute it.

Chloe’s blood-curdling shriek pierced through the speaker.

"AAHHH! Amelia, you lunatic! What are you eating?!"

"My mouth! My mouth is on fire! Help me, Ethan! Ethan, help me!"

The viewers on my stream heard everything.

The chat was suddenly flooded with question marks.

*"Who is that? Why is she screaming?"*

*"Wait, she said her mouth is on fire? The streamer eats the pepper, and some other girl’s mouth burns? What kind of black magic is this?"*

Chloe’s screaming continued in the background.

Then, Ethan’s panicked voice cut through.

"Chloe! Chloe, what's wrong? Why are your lips swelling up?!"

"It's Amelia! She's eating something! Ethan, make her stop! Please!"

Ethan’s voice turned into a roar of pure fury.

"Amelia! Stop this right now! You're hurting Chloe!"

II chewed the Carolina Reaper, my tongue so numb from pain that I could barely feel it anymore.

But Chloe could.

This time, the one suffering was no longer me.